I have been going through a tough time of lately, some of the things that disturbed me was when people started to take important decisions in my life, when my career seemed stagnant, my eagerness to pursue my goal at the cost of my job and most importantly I felt so powerless to change anything concerning me. I was surprised by the way I mumbled and grumbled about what’s happening to me. Well, mostly it’s the battle in my mind that sometimes resulted in spitting venom on people around me. Cruel. right? But, most of us lose our cool and go berserk. We are not actually angry with our close ones, but we do it out of frustration to show them that we are not fine. I was sure if these emotions lasted in me, I would end up getting depressed. I thought I shouldn’t give in to it and that’s when this verse from the Bible came handy.

The verse from Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding“. Trusting God is not so easy, especially when you see things falling apart; but it’s not impossible too, why I say this because the following line says “and lean not on your own understanding“. The problem arises when we start trusting our own understanding by merely looking at how things are going around and unfortunately we believe what we see. When we start believing what we see it’s so obvious that we stop trusting God. So what I learnt here is – to stop believing my understanding about a situation because it’s only one side to a story and mostly an exaggerated version of the real condition that runs in my mind. When I realised that I am not wise enough to deal with it, when I knew that I reached a point where I couldn’t help myself, it became much much easier for me to trust God with all my heart.

The perks of trusting God wholeheartedly is abundant, for when we allow him to handle our current situation, he gives us hope for a better future. He gives us assurance that nothing can go beyond his control. Eventually, we end up committing our plans, goals and interests to him to seek his will, that brings us to the next verse- Proverbs 3:6, which says “in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” God knows it’s your life and he cares about it more than you do, so he also cares about your interests and goals too. After all he’s our creator, who knows us better than the creator?

Having done all that’s said in these verses, how is my life now?

People still try to take important decisions concerning my life, my career is still stagnant, I am still keen on pursuing my goals but I don’t feel powerless anymore. The condition is same but I am not the same person that I was before, my perspective towards my life changed, I don’t mumble or grumble anymore rather I learnt to thank God for all that I have and slowly I realised once upon a time I prayed to God for a job that I have today, so why should I murmur when it’s not fine. People make decisions for me, but if not God, who is going to make it work? So, I just thank God for keeping better blessings in store for me though I can’t see it.

There is still turmoil around, but that does not disturb my peace and that does not stop me from foreseeing a prosperous future with him.

Like this:

“but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die”. -Genesis 2:17

This certainly sounds like a punishment for disobedience. And disobedience is a sin. Death came into this world through sin; and who sinned here is the first man and woman whom god created in his own image. God said “for when you eat from it you will certainly die“, death was not designed as part of human life until Adam and Eve sinned.
Now that sin entered the world and as a result death into our lives, what happens to a person after death is still a mystery. But Bible compares death to sleep.

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even their name is forgotten. Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun”. -Ecclesiastes 9:5

Did God create us only to see us die? No. God does not want us to be lost in death forever. Rather, he wants us to spend our life eternally in his kingdom- which is the actual purpose of creating us. We have hope that death is not the end of our existence, we have an immortal life to live. The way to such a life is Jesus Christ and the good news is he has already did his part on the cross so that we can victoriously raise from death.

“Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned”. -Romans 5:12

One man brought sin into this world for all the mankind and God by his grace sacrificed his only son as a penalty for each individual’s sin in order to reconcile the relationship between man and God that was long lost in Eden. This explains the reason why Jesus Christ was born on earth. So that by his blood we be clean.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” -John 3:16

Is death really a curse?

Well, It might appear as one but it actually is surrendering the soul back to the God who gave it and resting in the grave until Jesus Christ calls us in his second coming.

“and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” -Ecclesiastes 12:7

But why die? This is because we cannot enter God’s kingdom with this sinful body, there needs to be a transformation both in heart and body. By receiving Jesus Christ as our savior we can assure a place in his family and by losing this body in death we lose our earthly self.

“I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.” -1 Corinthians 15:50

It is the effort made by God to restore the glory that mankind lost because of sin. The kind of life that we live now and death are just different stages of the whole process, in a way to enter his kingdom. Never forget the fact that we will all be resurrected to immortal life someday.

Angel: Forgive me, Creator, I have a hard time performing my duties, as it is getting more and more difficult for me to understand people … At times it seems to me that pretty soon they will start to irritate me! I am not sure what to do, as I am supposed to manifest angel’s patience!

God: What irritates you in people?

Angel: They are constantly dissatisfied with what they have, but frequently do not know what they want. They constantly complain about something. They war with each other and destroy the surrounding nature. They hate those that are not like them. They depend on the opinion of others and they do not trust wise men anymore. They rely on gossipers and demagogues lately. They pray in church, just in order to sin again. That dispirits me!

Like this:

All of us have more than one reason to worry; worry about future, career, health, beauty, the reason might be different but the intensity of this emotion is the same for all.

Even I had a huge reason to worry. My worry was the biggest and most important thing in the whole world for me, I thought, just like any other victims of worry would feel. But NOT ANY MORE. My problems remain the same, it even got worse sometime back but I am not going to worry any more. Wise people who know what worry is; what it brings with it and what it takes away from you; will not worry any more.

“Can all your worries add a single moment in your life?” Matthew 6:27

First of all, your anxiety is not going to change the good or bad things that is going to happen or has already happened. Paying attention to these disturbing things will only make you weak – both mentally and physically.

We human beings have this special capability of thinking, which is very good; yet at times we exaggerate things in our mind so much that that leads us to worry even more. My dear friends, worry only steals your precious time. Over the course of time you forget to laugh. you forget to hope. you forget to live.

Worry can only kill your joy. Is your worry predominating your joy? Then, you must kill it. Let me show you how. I can only show the biblical way.. If you are ready then please read the verse below.

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6,7

This verse says it all. I have written below four points on the above verse which helped me cast my burden on a reliable person – GOD and stop worrying. Actually, I read this in a bible book “First steps new testament” given to me by my dad.

God promises us a special blessing if we do the following four things:

Stop worrying and start praying

Don’t ever think that your need is too insignificant for God’s attention. He wants you to pray about everything.

Tell God your needs

Even though God is all-knowing and is well aware of your situation, he desires that you verbalize your needs to him and place them in his hands.

Present your requests with thanks

Instead of praying with feelings of doubt, you can thank God for his answers in advance. Thank him for what he has done and thank him for the present situation no matter how bad it is.

Receive God’s peace

If you do the above steps, you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds during those difficult times in your lives.

There are other wonderful verses that’ll help you battle worry in your life.

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” 1 peter 5:7

“Fill your minds with those things that are good and that deserve praise: things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and honourable. Put into practice what you learned and received from me, both from my words and from my actions. And the God who gives us peace will be with you.” Philippians 4:8,9

Fix your thoughts on the power of God, not on the problems of life. Worry will always change you for the worse; God has the power to change you and your circumstances for better.

Like this:

I was given an independent task in my office and I gave my 100% to it, only to know that it’s a failure- the day before the launch. So embarrassing right? Yes, it was. It wasn’t my mistake but I failed. What’s more serious is the impact of my failure in my mind. The kind of thoughts that’s running in my mind right now is something I am concerned about as they are weird and convincing that I am the biggest fool on earth, I am a looser, I am incapable of doing anything. The solution that easily pops up in my mind is to run away from this environment, to run away to a distant place where no one can see me especially the eyes that saw my failure. I am sure that I am not the only one who gets engulfed in such extreme thoughts in times of a failure.

Thoughts are thoughts. The thoughts that comes up at this point of time is not true and the solution our mind suggests at this moment is dangerous. Practically, it’s not possible to run away from situation or people. So, I chose not to get dejected any more and as a result, I compiled this list of solutions that’ll help me and anyone who is facing similar failures in their life to bounce back with a smile.

Accept your failure

There is nothing harder than this but it takes a lot of courage to accept failure. Remember, only when you accept the reality, you can think about what next. No one ever tasted success without facing failure. Not even the great heroes in the bible escaped failure.

It takes time to come out of overflowing negative thoughts. But we have to come out of it to look back, to see what actually went wrong. It might be an attitude issue- Overconfidence, pride, negligence or strategy issue, be it anything. It is important to learn from our mistakes, most importantly to avoid repeating these mistakes in the future.I have a habit of writing journal, I record all the interesting, irritating, crazy, funny, happy, sad, good and bad moments of my life in it. When I page through these journals a few days or a few years later, It simply reminds me of the problems I faced and how I dealt with it over the time. As the psalmist says,

“My punishment was good for me, because it made me learn your commands.” -Psalms 119:71

Maintain a gratitude journal, most importantly update it

Remember this song?

When upon life’s billows you are tempest-tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

It is good to jot down the blessings we received in our lives and incidents when God rescued us, as this helps us to praise God in times of misery and trust in him.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” -psalms 103:2

Where have you kept your trust?

“My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” -Psalms 73:26

In Matthew 7:24-27 Jesus Christ tells us a parable about two builders, one built the house on rock and the other built his house on sand.

Where have you kept your trust? Is it on God or on situations, people and your effort?

Every time the people of Israel turned away from God, he punished them. They lost in their battles. But once they confessed their sins to God, he lifted them up in front of their enemies and gave them victory.

“Sometimes it takes a painful experience to make us change our ways.” -Proverbs 20:30

Look ahead, Move on

You have failed doesn’t mean you have to dwell in your failure.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” -Isaiah 43:18

If you have failed doesn’t mean God gave up on you.

“He strengthens those who are weak and tired.Even those who are young grow weak;young people can fall exhausted.But those who trust in the Lord for helpwill find their strength renewed.They will rise on wings like eagles;they will run and not get weary;they will walk and not grow weak.” -Isaiah 40:29-31

If you have failed doesn’t mean you should stop trying.

“For when I am weak, then I am strong.” -2 Corinthians 12:10

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” -Philippians 4:13

Like this:

Born and brought up in a Christian family and was taught to believe in Christ since childhood, and asking this question after twenty two years is a serious concern. I decided to write on this topic today because I am currently under so much of confusion. I am writing this in the heat of the moment so that I will not miss out to record any feelings or thoughts that’s in my mind right now. Most importantly, hoping to remember God’s promises and find an answer at least before I finish writing.

Trusting God is something that’s not easily executable to someone when things are no longer in their control. One such scenario is marriage. All I know about marriage is it is the perfect gift one can get from God and it can make or break one’s life.

In most of the Indian families, it is parents who will find a match for their children based on the criteria that differ from family to family. And children are no greater than a lamb ( currently, I can’t get a better picture of myself than a lamb) crushed between their own will, parent’s will and God’s will, as a result loosing the courage to follow anyone’s choice.

I believe it would be a wise idea for me to calm down for a while to describe everyone’s will in order to analyse them and decide who’s will stands out to be promising than the rest.

My will– Honestly, there is nothing like “my will”. There is a lot of fear and anxiety that’s rushing my heart and shooting my blood pressure up that even led me to google stuffs like “what to look for to marry a christian guy?”, “10 things to know before you marry” etc.( I completely agree such posts are good check lists). First of all will this marriage really work? As I have personally seen many broken marriages and a few successful ones, my strong belief is to build a right career first. My thoughts on life and marriage is completely different from that of my mom’s and the people of my community. Should I marry someone from my cast only? I thought followers of Christ have no caste and language based difference. Can I pursue dancing as a parallel activity before/after marriage? Is it wrong to postpone marriage till I get matured enough to take up responsibilities ( At least till I am 25)? Should I really pay someone to marry me? Will I find someone whose thoughts matches with my thoughts?

Parent’s will– Parents look within the same caste for a right family, right guy in terms of character, job security (in my case with an additional concern to match my height). Their genuine motive is to secure their children’s life- as quickly as possible.

God’s will– Unpredictable! Remember 1 corinthians 2:16?

“for, Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” ..

God knows “my will” and “parent’s will”. I am just wondering whose “will” is gonna take place.As the psalmist says in psalms 37:4,5,

“Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.”

At the same time, Paul warns us in the letter written to Romans that our thoughts should not be that of this world. The actual problem starts only when we start comparing our lives with others. Romans 12:2,

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

When I am not sure about whose intuition to trust, it’s better to lean onto someone who knows my life better. And that someone can be none other than God himself. For he has promised in Jeremiah 29:11,

“I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for”

And most importantly, the powerful weapon that I have is prayer. Philippians 4:6,

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.”

God’s word is full of promises. Promises that he will fulfil for his loved ones. Next time when I start doubting God, reciting his word mentioned above can renew my mind to accept his will for me and trust him completely.

Like this:

As a kid I would always wonder who created me? Who created such complex and sensitive things like my brain and heart? Who created the dogs and the cats? Who created such a huge earth that’s floating in the solar system with no one holding it? How does the earth and other planets revolve around the sun on their respective path? Most importantly without clashing with each other. Even today it still amazes me! Today it still amazes me because, I now know the creator.

I am a science student. So I know the technical terms and theories like cells, tissues, big bang, higgs boson, gravity, centrifugal force, centripetal force etc. that define the creator’s work. We human beings have discovered and will continue discovering and decoding the creator’s creation. But who is this creator and how sure can we be that we are created with so much of love? Nothing can assure us of this love better than the way psalmist has written.

“You[God] created every part of me; you[God] put me together in my mother’s womb” psalms 139:13

This is a clear evidence that each one of us born on earth are not here by mistake but purely by God’s knowledge. Everyone are chosen by God and that’s why we are created here on earth to do his purposes. But sometimes we are too busy to think about it or we don’t realize it and even if we do so we drift away from his plan.

Who can care about us so much and watch every minute details of our lives other than our father. As the psalmist rightly said in psalms 139

“2 You know everything I do;from far away you understand all my thoughts.3 You see me, whether I am working or resting;you know all my actions.4 Even before I speak,you already know what I will say.5 You are all around me on every side;you protect me with your power.6 Your knowledge of me is too deep;it is beyond my understanding.”

God has completely designed our lives and has unique plans for each one of us. Its only when we go away from his plan for our lives, that we start messing up big time.

Psalms 139:16 ” you saw me before I was born. These days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began. “

God knows whom to create and why. So if we are here on earth, what is it for? In John 17:9 Jesus Christ said,

“I do not pray for the world but for those you gave me, for they belong to you.”

Our God created each one of us with utmost care and importance and that’s the reason we exist. The invitation to do God’s will is open to all but, its up to us to accept his call or reject.

The remnant of Israel are gods chosen once. We his children are servants of god were god choses to serve him.

Jesus Christ also said “My sheep recognize my voice”

Are we part of his herd? If yes, Jesus Christ himself is ready to guide us in the path of salvation.